Knitted glove and method of producing the same.



G. STIBBE. KNITTED GLOVE AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 22. I91].

Patented Jan. 21, 1919.

GODFREY S'IIIBBE, F LEICESTER, ENGLAND.

KNITTED GLOVE AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 21, 1919.

Application flledAugust 22,1917. Serial No. 187,721.

To all when it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gonrnnr S'rnmn, subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Leicester, in the county of Leicester, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvement in or Relating to Knitted Gloves and Methods of Producing the Same, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompany ing drawing.

This invention relates to knitted gloves and to the method of producing the same, and has for its object to produce an improved machine-made glove as will be hereinafter described.

The method included in this invention has the advantage that by means of same, articles of the character concerned can be made much quicker and cheaper than heretofore.

The finger fabrics of the improved glove are knitted in the form of joinless continuationsof the hand fabric and are of greater width than the portions of the hand fabric with which they are formed.

A machine-made knitted glove according to this invention is characterized by the fact that the courses of stitches of .the fabric are disposed vertically from the finger tips to the end of the wrist.

The requisite fabric for the four fingers is knitted with the hand fabric, the thumb being made of a separate piece of fabric inserted in the proper position for either a right hand or left hand glove. The glove has'a longitudinal seam which may be located either down the outside of the little finger and the hand and wrist, or may extend down the inside of the glove from between the first finger and middle finger to the wrist.

In producing the improved glove I preferably use a circular knitting machine although it may be possible to produce the article on a flat or straight bar machine.

The method of producing the glove on a circular knitting machine consistsin knitting a piece of tubular fabric and at intervals forming therein, upon one side of the tube, extra fabric by reciprocating knitting on certain needles while the others remain out of action. This roduces more courses upon one side of the tube than the other, the

additional courses of fabric ultimately servmg to provide the extra width necessary-for the fingers of the glove and obviating any undesirable increase in width of the hand portion.

Thus the invention includes a glove blank consisting of a tube of knitted fabric having upon one side thereof a series of horizontal pouches or enlargements each of which contains a greater number of courses than the portion of the tube immediately opposite said erlargements.

In making up a glove from such a blank the tube is cut longitudinally near one end of the pouches or enlargements, then each of the latter is cut to form opposite sides of the fingers said sides being seamed together after the fabric has been folded upon itself to bring said opposite sides into relative position. v

To enable the invention to be clearly and readily understood the same will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of a knitted glove formed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a erspective view of one form of a tubular knitted blank from which the improved glove is formed.

Fig. 3 shows the blank cut open and laid out fiat.

Fig. 4 shows the blank folded upon itself after the pouches have been cut to produce the widened finger fabrics.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of the tubular knitted blank showing an alternative method of forming the horizontal pouch or enlargement.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view showing the seamless gusset between adjacent fingers of the glove produced byflthe pouch shown in Fig. 5.

'In all the figures of the drawing like parts are designated by the same reference characters.

According to one method, in proceeding to knit the blank on a circular knitting machine, knitting takes place upon all the needles until an enlargement is to be formed whereupon knitting proceeds by the reciprocating method upon certain needles only for largement is to be formed -as for instance by seaming.

a predetermined number of courses after wh1ch all the needles continue in action. The reciprocating knitting upon a section of the needles followed by all round knltting produces on the tube 1 of fabric (Fig. 2) a pouch or enlargement 2 as Wlll be understood by those skilled in the art of knitting) machinery the outer courses of the ouch eing salvaged and disconnected from the mam tubular fabricthereby forming open ends 3 in the enlargement Circular knitting proceeds to extend the tubular fabric 1 unti whereupon the reciprocating knitting operation is repeated and by the aforesaid process anotherenlargement is made. By repeating the said operation at intervals a series of pouches or enlargements 2 is made as shown thus forming a tubular blank which on the vertical side where the pouches are formed has a greater number of courses than on the straight or plain side.

The tube of fabric 1 is made of a length to equal twice the width of the glove, and when the blank is to form a single glove, the pouches or enlargements are made of a width 2'. e. from one end to the other, not less than the required length of the finger fabrics, the remaining plain art of the tubes circumference being of a size sufficient toform the hand and wrist fabric of the glove. The blank is made with six pouches the fabric on each side of same being that which ultimately forms the backs and fronts of the four fingers as will be explained.

In making up a glove from the blank shown in Fig. 2, the tube 1 is cut longitudinally the severance taking place in the region of one end of the enlargements 2 as for instance along the line a-a. When the blank is opened out after being cut in this manner it is found to be of the form shown in Fig. 3 consisting of a flat piece of fabric comprising a hand and wrist portion 4 united with the series of enlargements 2.

Each enlargement is now out down the center along the line b?) (Fig. 3) this out being in a direction at right angles to the previously mentioned out which opened the tube. The division of each enlargementin the manner just described produces on the fabric 4 a series of separated finger fabrics which form joinless continuations of the portions 4 and whose width is greater than that part of the fabric to which they are joined by reason of the extra material provided by half the enlargement on each side.

The blank is now doubled or folded upon itslef along the line cc (Fig. 3) to bring together the sides 5 (which were of course originally the ends of the tube as shown) and these are joined in any suitable manner To finish the fingers, on each side of the folded blank the another pouch or ennaea ae ends 6 and 6, 7 and 7, and 8 and 8 of the fabrics are joined together on each side and then the edges of the finger fabrics are joined as follows, 9 to 9, 10 to 10, 11 to 11, 12 to 12, 13 to 13, and 14 to 14.

It will be noticed that the space between the two center enlargements 0n the blank (Figs. 2 and 3) is greater than the spaces between the other enlargements of the series. This is to provide a finger fabric wide enough to double or fold when the blank is folded on the linecc and so form one finger, the first or fourth, of the glove without an outside seam as will be understood by reference to Fig. 4. It will also be seen in this figure how, when the blank is folded upon itself, the finger fabrics on each side of the center fabric constitute respectively the front and back halves of the other fingers and are brought opposite each other for their sides to be oined as previously described. In Fig. 4 the fabrics for the difierent fingers are shown overlapping each other but it will be understood that they are separated prior to being seamed round.

To complete the glove a thumb 15 may be inserted in any convenient manner.

The enlargements 2 ma be positioned in relation to the ends 5 o the tube )so that the seam 16 (Fig. 1) which connects the sides 5 of the fabric (Fig. 3) will be located upon it may extend down the inside of the glove as indicated by the dotted lines.

The blank may be made sufiiciently large in diameter to produce two gloves in which case the pouches or enlargements 2 will be of double width from end to end and in cutting the tube longitudinally, one cut will be taken through the center of the series of enlargements'and another at a diametrically opposite point in the tube thus producing two fabrics such as shown in Fig. 3.

In the hereinbeforedescribed method oi: producing the pouches or enlargements 2 the reciprocating knitting is continued throughout upon all those needles which are concerned in producing the pouch with the result, as aforesaid, that a piece of selvaged fabric is formed with openings at either end where it joins the main fabric.

Now while the open end 3 of the enlargement 2 is convenient in. so far as it facilitates the subsequent cutting of the enlargement to'separate the finger fabrics, it necessitates a transverse seaming operation in this region to join the lower termination of the side of the finger fabric to the main fabric.

By means of a modification in the formation of the pouch or enlargement 2 this seaming operation between the fingers at the base is obviated. The modification consists in forming the pouch with closed ends instead of open ends thus in the finished glove making the union of thev sides of the fingers the outside of the glove as shown, or 1 1,aaa,120

with the main fabric a seamless one which has the advantage that moreroom is provided in this region seeing that none of the fabric is taken up by transverse seams. A further feature of the modification is that in addition to being closed at the ends, the pouches of the glove blank are fashioned at the ends which portions are appropriate for forming seamless gussets between'the glove fingers.

' The said modification is carried out by gradually decreasing and then increasing again the number of needles in action during reciprocatin knitting, after the manner of the so ca led narrowing and widen.- ing operations employed in knitting a heel or toe pouch of a stocking. The result of this is that the enlargement 2 (Fig. 5) is i formed with closed ends 17 which knitting may be effected by any .constitutes the width are fashioned i. e. they are gradually increased from the single course in the main fabric to the full number of extra courses of which the enlargement is composed.

In subsequently dealing with the blank having pouches of the character just referred to, each enlargement or pouch is out along the center as in the previously described form except that in the present case, the said central cu't extends from one end to the other of the wide part of the en.- largement and is not continued through the fashioned ends of the enlargement, these parts being left to form the seamless gussets between the fingers as represented in Fig. 6 it being observed that the only seam present between the fingers is the longitudinal seam 18 which passes right around the inside from the tip of one finger to another.

The decrease and increase of the number of needles in action during reciprocating own or (Fig. 2 or 5) for other-suitable means.

The tubular sections the glove blanks may be produced in continuous form and be separated by cutting the tube transversely.

It will be understood that as it is the length of the tubular blank section which of the glove, the knitted courses of stitches will be disposed vertically of the glove, and the ribs or wales (being in knitted fabric always at right angles to the courses) will extend transversely or horizontally thereof. In the drawing the shade lines in each figure represent the ribs or wales of the knitted fabric these being indicated in preference to the courses seeing that on the front or face of knitted fabr'c they constitute moreconspicuous surface markings than do the courses. It will however, be understood that the essential and novel feature of the invention is that the knit-ted courses are disposed vertically.

What I claim then is 1. A machinemade knitted glove having the courses of stitches of the fabric disposed vertically from the finger tips to the ,end of the wrist, the finger fabrics being formed as joinless continuations of the hand fabric and of greater width than the ortions of the hand fabric with which t ey are formed.

2. A machine-made knitted glo've havin the courses of stitches of the fabric dispose vertically from the finger tips to the end, of the wrist, the finger fabrics being formed as joinless continuations of the hand fabric and of greater width than the portions of the hand fabric with which they are formed and also having seamless gussets between them.

3. A machine-made knitted glove havin the courses of stitches of the fabric disposed vertically from the finger tips to the end of the wrist, the finger fabrics being formed as joinless continuations of the hand fabric and of greater width than the portions of the hand fabric with which they are formed and also having seamless fashioned gussets between them.

4. A glove blank consisting of a tube of ting a piece of tubular fabric and at in tervals forming therein, upon one sideof the tube enlargements of extra fabric by reciprocating knitting on a section of the needles, cutting the tube longitudinally to open same, dividing each enlargement to separate \the finger fabrics, doubling or foldin the glove fabric upon itself, joining the si es thereof, joinin the edges of the opposite halves of the ngers, and inserting a thumb, substantially as described. p In testimony whereof I afiix'my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GODFREY STIBBE. Witnesses:

Gnonon Lnsmn, Erma. F. Am. 

